Modern phone networks provide for the identification and logging of phone calls made across the network. The information available about these phone calls includes the date and time of the call, the duration of the call, the dialed number and the number placing the call, and the names and addresses of the persons or businesses associated with these numbers. This information can be logged in a personal computer, a private branch exchange (PBX), Centrex equipment, or a database connected to a network such as a service provider network or a TCP/IP type computer network. Most of this information is typically not made available to the general public but is used for the purposes of Call Detail Reporting, to monitor phone usage, and to provide for customer billing.
Some of such information, for example the number originating the phone call, can be displayed at the dialed number on the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). The CPE displays the number placing the call and logs a record of that number locally along with the date and time of that call. Some services may also display the name of the subscriber assigned to the originating number. Personal computers connected to services such as Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Lines (ASDL) can also create logs of received calls that are resident locally in these computers. In either example, however, a person must be at the CPE or personal computer to view these received call logs and must manually re-enter the originating numbers to return missed calls or to save the contents of the call log.
Cellular phones also provide for the display of incoming phone numbers and for logging these numbers locally including when the receiving party misses the call. Cellular phones further provide for dialing of the received phone numbers without the need to re-enter these numbers and for the direct entry of these numbers into a phone book that is resident in the cellular phone. Again, however, the user of the cellular phone must be in physical contact with that phone to take advantage of these features.
Remote access to phone messages is generally limited to voice recording answering machines that are either resident at a subscriber's premises or resident in the service provider's network and made available to subscribers. These devices and services only provide audio message from callers that leave message. In addition, unless the voice messaging system adds header information to the message such as the phone number placing the call, the information available to the recipient is limited to the contents of the audio message. In either case, the recipient receives no information if the calling party terminates the call before leaving an audio message.
Therefore, a method is desired to provide remote polling by a subscriber of a call log that contains a complete list of all originated calls to a specified subscriber number. The customer should be able to upload the information to CPE, computers, or wireless devices for review, storage and use.